Why a Four Day Work Week Would be Good for America

Stress has permeated American culture. Heart disease is on the rise, more people are on anxiety meds than ever, people are jetting off to appointments and meetings all day long and even children have rigidly scheduled daily lives. We are a country that could really use a breather. Yet, our culture encourages us to work harder and longer, especially as the economy starts to falter.

Being exhausted, stressed out, anxious and overextended isn’t the only consequence of the tough American work week. Long commutes cause pollution and are a big drain on energy resources. As gas prices are rising, people are trying to find ways to cut back, but our country wasn’t built for mass public transportation and we still have to get to work. The solution that some people are promoting could have a positive effect not only on oil consumption, but American life in general: a four day work week.

The idea is taking root in communities around the country. From King 5 News:

The state of West Virginia is considering a four-day week for government workers there.

Working four days instead of five would mean 20 percent fewer trips to and from work, reducing gasoline consumption by an estimated 65 million gallons per day, not to mention more time with family, and for Mike Cummings, a bit more hope for the future.

“I think this would help with a lot of the planet’s problems, I think it would help with our oil problems and give them a little better life,” he said.

Marion County Florida recently switched to a four-day work week for county workers. They expect to save $250,000 in energy costs this year alone.

Would you work an extra two hours per day, four days a week in order to have a three day weekend? Doesn’t the system of living to work, rather than working to live, seem unfair to you? The idea that we have to spend so much of our lives away from our friends and family, doing things we most often don’t even like doing just so we can support ourselves is a difficult one to swallow, yet it’s the expected system in this country. The thing is, it doesn’t have to be that way.

The benefits of a four day work week wouldn’t just affect oil consumption and our stress levels. The increase in family time could be just what our culture needs, and people need to be able to cultivate interests outside of their employment. Imagine how much more well rounded we’d be as people if we spent that extra day volunteering in our communities, reading books, gardening, exercising and participating in other beneficial activities.

Nobody has identified and explained the benefits of a four day work week better than Aaron Newton at Groovy Green. He’s come up with not three, not ten but sixteen individual benefits to the idea. They include reduced oil consumption, reduced greenhouse gases, reduced worker exposure to pollutants, less traffic congestion, less money spent on roads, reduced personal expenses for workers, fewer auto accidents, less time spent in the car, a reduction in absenteeism, increased productivity, more time with family, decreased labor costs, decreased operational costs, reduced childcare costs, a transition into the informal economy and just plain being happier. Here’s a snippet of what he had to say about it:

Peak oil and climate change could make for turbulent business waters ahead. This country needs more business leaders willing to navigate these waters not by burdening their workforce with limitations or restrictions but with a willingness to try new strategies. Ideas such as this one should be strongly considered by corporate America or maybe it’s time for the Federal government to revisit this issue through law. New ways of working really could benefit both businesses and employees. It’s important in the time ahead not to simply saddle the workers of America with the rising costs of energy and ecological destruction.

There are lots options concerning the number of hours a 4 Day Work Week could contain. Employees could work 10 hours a day and keep a 40 hour work week. Or they could simply eliminate an entire day and drop down to a 32 hour work week. In between is the idea of working 4 days a week, 9 hours a day. But regardless of how many hours people work, the important part to remember is that most tasks are going to get accomplished each week just as they did before. A recent survey by salary.com of over 10,000 American workers revealed that on average, we waste more than 2 hours each day surfing the web or making phone calls to friends.

Increased productivity could be the clincher for companies, who tend to see everything according to the bottom line. Having happier employees that are more satisfied in their lives and grateful for a schedule that gives them more free time could certainly make a big difference. When employee morale is up, more work gets done – it’s simple.

Americans are already getting the short end of the stick when it comes to time off. Compared to other nations, we hardly get any vacation time at all, and when you look at perks like mandatory paid maternity leave and sick days, we look even more stretched and overworked. Employees in Germany, Austria, France, Britain, Spain and Sweden get at least 20 legally mandated days off per year. Doesn’t that make you feel like you’re missing out? Meanwhile, the companies we’re working for are making a profit off of our willingness to perform as ‘labor units’ rather than living, breathing people with lives outside of our work. The rich are growing richer, but those of us actually making the sacrifices haven’t seen our income increase in years.

So, how do we get started? Most of the companies in America won’t make the jump until larger corporations have proven it’s a success. Perhaps if some of those among the 100 Best Companies to Work for – Google, Edward Jones, Goldman Sachs and REI for example – started it up, we could see a trickle down effect as others began following their lead.

Besides that, people need to start demanding more benefits. Imagine if every employee in a major corporation got together and told their bosses they need more time off. Certainly, there are a lot of issues involved in making this switch and it wouldn’t catch on overnight, but even if only a fraction of American workers were able to negotiate a four day work week, we’d be better off overall.

Link [King 5 News] + [Groovy Green]

Photo credit: Flickr user Burning Image + 20th Century Fox

Paper Company Finds that Green Makes Good Business Sense

Grays Harbor Paper went under in 1992, and not just jobs were lost – as families made hard choices and were forced to move, some committed suicide. 600 people in the nearby rural cities of Hoquiam and Aberdeen lost their jobs. Things were bleak overall, and Bill Quigg had quite a task in front of him when he bought the company in 1993.

That’s why he decided to make a big change: the traditional paper industry wasn’t working in these small logging towns, partially because of the protected status of the endangered spotted owl, which calls the forests in this area of Washington state home. Where workers once cursed the owl for putting them out of work, Quigg saw a solution: using 100 percent recycled paper instead of cutting down trees. And, he didn’t stop there – the plant is now entirely powered by biomass fuel derived from logging waste.

Quigg isn’t doing it for the earth. It’s all about money. From Mother Jones:

“Politically I am on the right side of Genghis Khan,” says Quigg. “I’m not a lefty wacko.” Nevertheless, “We make the greenest products, and we make them with the greenest fuel,” he enthusiastically boasts. “Nobody else does that. We have the audacity to think we can change the market. If you buy local and smarter, you save a tremendous amount of fossil fuel.”

Regardless of Quigg’s motivations, Grays Harbor Paper stands to be an excellent model for green practices reviving depressed rural areas as well as green business practices in general. As other companies watch, perhaps down the line we’ll see more following the same path to being successful and eco-friendly at the same time. They’re not mutually exclusive, folks!

Link [Mother Jones]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Houses Covered in Gold: When Kudzu Attacks

Earlier this week, we told you about kudzu, the ‘scourge of the South’, a vine that spreads like crazy and has now been found to have quite a few promising uses. It’s being looked to as a possible source of renewable energy, plus it has the ability to leach chemicals out of contaminated soils and has additional food and medicinal uses.

Well, that would mean that these folks are sitting on (or, rather, under - if anyone can even get in the house) a veritable gold mine. This is the sort of thing I see often driving from North Carolina down to my home state of Florida: structures totally taken over by kudzu.

Photographer Jack Anthony has some amazing photos of what he calls ‘natural sculptures’, including an awesome series showing the progression of the kudzu growth over four seasons. No doubt, the owners of this land were unhappy when the kudzu invasion started, but maybe they feel better after the recent kudzu-loving news. Before they know it, they might be standing outside their fences protecting this stuff with shotguns against would-be poachers!

Link [JJAnthony] via [Neatorama]

Photo credit: Jack Anthony

Reuters Reporters Can’t Believe Billionaire Oilman Is Investing in Wind to Make Money

With a name like T. Boone Pickens, Jr., how could you not grow up to be a billionaire oilman?

80 year old T. Boone made his billions over the decades by growing his oil company through a flurry of mergers and acquisitions and is now setting his sites on the wind. His plan calls for spending $10B to build the worlds largest wind farm in Texas.

I found this news in a Reuters story, author Chris Baltimore seems blown away that someone actually expects to make money by doing something green. Check out:

But Pickens is not out to save the planet. He intends to make money.

Golly gee, a businessman invests in a green business and isn’t doing it to make the world a happier and shinier place? He actually will make money? Stop the presses, 1999 wants it’s storyline back.

Link [Reuters]

Kudzu: The Cancer of the South, Mankind’s Savior?

I live in the South, where Kudzu stretches for miles and miles. I’ve seen abandoned buildings completely taken over, and forests covered in an eerie Kudzu canopy. The oft-maligned, extremely invasive plant has been called ‘the plant that ate the South’. The idea of Kudzu ever having a positive use would leave many Southerners scratching their heads.

So it’s surprising to learn that Kudzu actually has many benefits - and might even be one answer to the world’s energy crisis.

What would you call a plant that may be mankind’s next great source of renewable biofuels?

That can leech the noxious chemicals out of contaminated soils?

That is an essential component of Chinese traditional medicines; a potential control drug for an alcoholic’s cravings; a plant whose starch makes pies and gravies light and delicious; not to mention a plant that can prevent stream banks from eroding, naturally increase the fertility of depleted farmers’ fields; can be ground up to produce fine paper and is a beloved by goats as forage?

I can tell you one thing - landowners around here would be more than happy to unload tons of this stuff on whoever wants it. That is, unless the greed that is such an ingrained part of human nature takes over and turns it into the next big cash crop. Yeah, that seems more likely.

Link [CBC News]

Photo: Flickr user meshmar2

New Invention Proves Even Old People Can Be Effective In Saving The World

Besides Winston Churchill, George Burns, and Hugh Hefner, few old people generally intrigue me. I could probably even beat up Clint Eastwood now.

But today is a special day as I’ve added a new geriatric to my list by the name of Lloyd Linson-Smith. What’s Lloyd done to make the world a cooler place? The man is saving you water — lots of it — with a new invention that came about by some simple nagging from his wife. From the article,

A Darling Downs resident has invented a valve that stops the average household losing 16,000 litres of water down the drain. Lloyd Linson-Smith’s Enviro Save device diverts and saves cold water that flows from domestic taps before hot water arrives. The $198 valve can be fitted to plumbing systems in new homes or retro fitted to older style houses for $475. Linson-Smith, 77, got the idea after he moved from Brisbane to Oakey, where his new home was supplied by tanks.

“We used to save the cold water in buckets for use in the garden but then my wife said, ‘Okay smart arse, you have spent a lifetime as a tool and light machinery manufacturer so you should be able find an easier way to save our precious water’,” he said. “So I came up with the idea of a brass valve that is installed in the hot water pipeline just before the kitchen sink,” he said. “The cold water ahead of the arrival of the hot water is identified by a thermal element and bypasses the sink.

Genius. This is all the more proof that behind every great man is an even greater woman. Let’s hope Lloyd’s invention makes it around the world. Oh, and if he ever wants to grab a beer, I’ll drop everything.

Link [Courier Mail]

Can a Power Company REALLY Be Carbon Neutral?

Yes, it can be done, and a New Zealand power company has been doing it for more than a year.

Worldchanging explains:

Meridian Energy generates around a third of New Zealand’s total energy demand (approx 12,000 GWh) exclusively from wind and hydro sources. The company has a history of advocating a carbon credit marketplace.

But not all New Zealand state-owned enterprises can boast the same carbon neutral certification.

Solid Energy is the largest coal mining company in New Zealand, and also state owned. It’s the company, I’m ashamed to say, that dig up and export New Zealand’s coal to be burned in China—and the ones that intend to create a new open cast mine in Happy Valley.

It sounds like a terrible place for a coal mine—even though I’m not certain what or where Happy Valley is (but then, what do Americans know about New Zealand really, except that it’s where the Hobbits live?). Before we all get too happy about this, I should note that Meridian Energy is carbon neutral in large part because they operate nine hydroelectric projects—big dams, that is, of the sort that would be considered an environmental disaster if they were under construction today, but are somehow okay if they already exist.

Meridian Energy also operate wind turbines—like the one in the photo above, in Wellington—on a really large scale.

Link [Worldchanging]

Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons

Green Vaporwear, Hucksterism, and Electric Cars- Wired Magazine Unloads on Zap!

Holy crap did Wired Magazine just unload on electric car company Zap!. It sounds like the company is run by a couple of shady hucksters who have enriched themselves at the expense of their customers, employees, and franchisees while screwing things up for all the real green car companies with their constant over promising and under delivering.

Here’s an snip, head over and read the whole article which Wired was kind enough to post in full to their site.

Over the years, ZAP has taken millions from investors and dealers eager to see the company’s line of green cars hit the road. But that line has never materialized. Of nearly a dozen groundbreaking eco-vehicles ZAP has promised in public announcements and on its Web site, only the Xebra and its sibling, a truck version, have ever made it to market. As a result, fans of electric cars have grown disillusioned, while individuals like Youssef have been financially devastated. What’s more, investment firms around the country have become cautious about financing electric vehicles after being repeatedly misled by one of the industry’s most visible companies.

In spite of all this, the pair now running the company, Starr and CEO Steve Schneider, enjoy lucrative employment packages that have made them millions. Their compensation — and ZAP’s continued existence as a business — heavily depends on the continual issuance of new stock shares. And although ZAP has earned an annual profit only once in its 16 years of existence (even that was the result of a one-time debt conversion) and its stock has been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, and the Pacific Stock Exchange, Starr and Schneider have managed to keep ZAP shares from becoming worthless. They’ve achieved this almost entirely through a relentless flow of press releases in which ZAP describes itself as “a world leader in electric transportation” and constantly claims to be on the verge of innovations and business deals that will yield breakthroughs in green transportation — claims that consistently fall short.

None of this would be possible without the optimism and naïveté of those eager to put their faith in the electric car future. When it comes to green technology, some people just want to believe. It’s easy to see why: Electric cars, after all, don’t run on gas, so they produce virtually no emissions. They do consume some fossil fuels, since they charge their batteries from the grid, which mostly uses coal and natural gas to generate power. But because electric cars are more efficient than gas cars at turning energy into miles, their carbon footprint averages out to be 50 to 90 percent less than that of traditional vehicles. (And that figure drops to nearly zero if the car is plugged into a renewable energy source like a solar panel array.) Electric cars could decrease dependence on oil, reduce global carbon emissions, and save consumers money. But while Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Ford, and General Motors all toyed with electric vehicles in the ’90s, these companies had effectively ended development by 2003, when California stopped requiring automakers to offer zero-emissions vehicles. Since then, electric car enthusiasts have been forced to pin their hopes on small independent companies — like ZAP.

“They tug at your heartstrings,” says Joseph Gottlieb, a ZAP dealer from the San Diego area who has filed an official complaint against ZAP with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “If ZAP was in any other business, the company would have been dead long ago. But they keep taking advantage of how much environmentalists — like me — want to see electric cars come to market.”

The lesson to be learned here: Greenies are easy to rip off if you tell them you’re trying to save the world.

Link [Wired] via [EcoGeek]

Guy Kawasaki Wants to Invent 500 MPG Car But Fears Valleywag and TechCrunch Won’t Like It

OK, this is a little tongue in cheek, but whatever- it’s Friday.

I got sent a link for an interview with famed (if you’re a geek) Apple Software Evangelist Guy Kawasaki over at Red Herring where he wraps up the interview by saying:

RH: Truemors has been much criticized for its cheap interface and for collecting more spams than news. How do you feel when you read the virulent attacks of your critics?

G K: Well I am a big target and no matter what I do I am a target. Let’s imagine that one day I invent a car that goes 500 miles per gallon with zero emission, and let’s say that TechCrunch writes that up, or Valleywag. The commentaries would be “it’s not that hard to do, this car could have been designed in one hour; and the only reason why Guy is getting attention about this car is because 25 years ago he worked for Apple.” It’s just my life.

Don’t let the haters hold you back Guy. If you feel there’s a 500 MPG car inside you, let it out. Al Gore will protect you from those meanies Michael Arrington and Owen Thomas.

Link [Red Herring]

Photo credit: Flickr user Randy Stewart

The Oracle of Omaha Loves Him Some Railroad Stocks

Get this- railroads are hot again. CNN Money reports that Warren Buffett has been quietly buying up stock in railroad companies.- he got 18% of Burlington Northern Santa Fe in January. Railroads were deregulated in 1980 and the industry has been on an efficiency boosting tear since then. Productivity has more than doubled since 1990 and technological advancements have pushed fuel efficiency by more than 80% since 1980.

Railroads are a lot more efficient than trucks, emitting 65% less emissions than trucks alone on trips over 1,000 miles. Expanding capacity on the rail network is not easy and demand is rising so the railroads are able to raise prices. Railroad stocks have mostly been immune to the softening in the market and after word of Buffett’s buy got out the companies he bought into all saw boosted stock prices.

It’s good (for your bank account) to be green(er).

Link [CNN Money]

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